"Wait until we reach the grove": A dispute on the road that ended in a vehicular assault

An indictment was filed today, Friday, against Basel Shoamreh, 27, a resident of the village of Dura near Hebron. According to the prosecution, the indictment charges Shoamreh with intentional murder, two counts of attempted murder, and a series of other offenses. This follows allegations that he ran over and killed Muhammad Sharha and attempted to run over other illegal residents he was transporting into Israel.

According to the indictment, filed by Adv. Giora Hazan of the Southern District Attorney's Office, Shoamreh — a resident of the Palestinian Authority who was in Israel without a permit and without an Israeli driver's license — coordinated with others to transport 18 illegal residents from the Dura area into Israel through a breach in the security fence. For this purpose, it is alleged, he used a vehicle bearing forged license plates that had been taken off the road months earlier.

According to the indictment, during the trip, one of the passengers felt ill, and the deceased and other passengers asked the defendant to stop. Shoamreh initially refused for fear of being caught, and when he finally stopped, he lashed out at them, cursed, and said regarding the passenger who felt ill:

"Let him die, it's no big deal."

During the heated exchange, he threatened them and told the deceased: "Wait until we reach the grove," or words to that effect, and then continued driving.

Later, the defendant and the passengers arrived at a grove near Kibbutz Dvir in the northern Negev, where another confrontation developed, during which Shoamreh was injured in the head. According to the allegations, he then got back into the vehicle and began driving fast and wildly toward the passengers who had fled, chasing them in the open field in an attempt to run them over. One of them was hit and injured.

The indictment further states that the deceased and two other passengers fled up a nearby hill. According to the charge, Shoamreh spotted them, accelerated the vehicle toward them, and struck all three with force. After the impact, the deceased was thrown to the ground, and the defendant continued driving and ran him over with the vehicle's wheels. The two other passengers were thrown to the ground and injured.

Subsequently, it is alleged, the defendant noticed the deceased's brother running toward him and tried to run him over as well, and then continued driving toward other passengers who were fleeing in the area, until he fled the scene and abandoned the vehicle. MADA teams summoned to the scene pronounced the deceased dead on the spot.

In the request for detention until the end of proceedings, Adv. Hazan noted that Shoamreh acted aggressively and with severe violence toward the passengers following a dispute that developed between them after they asked to stop during the trip against his will.

The indictment charges the defendant with offenses of intentional murder, two counts of attempted murder, multiple counts of aggravated assault, illegal stay in Israel, transporting illegal residents under aggravating circumstances, driving without a driver's license, and driving without a vehicle license.